Transport Hubs

Sustainable local economic development and poverty alleviation in many rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa is constrained by physical remoteness, poor accessibility, widely dispersed settlements, low densities of economic activities and poorly developed transport services. Many rural settlements suffer from poor access to mainstream markets and specialised services (macro-level access), as well as constrained access to local markets and basic facilities (micro-access)

Generally, rural Africa is going through a process of economic and social restructuring, characterised by de-agrarianisation and diversification of livelihoods' strategies. An observable trend is the growing significance of rural trade, agro-processing and service sectors concentrated at certain nodes within settlements in rural areas. Accompanying this is an emerging transport service sector, connecting the rural trade centers to other higher order settlements within a region. In many cases however, transport links between the rural trade centers and the rural hinterland remains extremely unreliable, making it difficult for people in the hinterlands to access services and emerging opportunities.

In broad terms, transport hubs are points of traffic convergence and dispersal. They are characterised by a continuum of transport services operating at various levels [short distance/long distance], capacities [low volume/high volume], speeds and purposes [passenger/freight] They offer the scope for deliberately strengthening rural and urban linkages, and the potential to cluster core-service sectors around transport nodes ensuring efficiency and optimal access for all.

Rural transport hubs are a focal interest of the IFRTD network in East and Southern Africa. In 2005 four exploratory studies were carried out in Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe to look at the organisation of transport services in small rural hubs. The studies are summarised in the June 2006 edition of Forum News. Click here to download (Acrobat 123kb).

From this initiative a concept note has been developed to propose an in-depth pilot study in East and Southern Africa and the replication of the scoping studies in Asia and West Africa.

For more information please contact:
Peter Njenga, IFRTD Regional Coordinator (East and Southern Africa) Email: peter.njenga@ifrtd.org